THE ATTACK OF THE GIANT HORNY GORILLA aka A.P.E.; HIDEOUS MUTANT; SUPER KONG
South Korea. 1976. Director - Paul Leder, Screenplay - Paul & Reuben A. Leder, Producers - Paul Leder & K.M. Yeung, Photography - Tony Francis & Daniel L. Symmes, Music - Bruce Mac Rae, Special Effects - Park Kwang Nam, Production Design - Lee Bong Sun. Production Company - Lee Ming Film Co. Rod Arrants (Tom Rose), Joanna De Verona (Marilyn Baker), Alex Nicol (Colonel Davis), Francis Lee (Captain Kim), Jerry Harke (Lieutenant Smith), Alice Woo (Mrs Kim)
Plot: A giant ape escapes as it is being shipped back to Disneyland and rampages across the South Korean countryside causing mass destruction and snatching up a beautiful American actress.
This South Korean production, originally released as `A.P.E.', was made the same year as the Dino de Laurentiis remake of `King Kong'. It was clearly hoping to exploit some of the expected success of `King Kong' - that is before `King Kong' premiered and became a big heap of ape dung with anybody who had seen the original and audiences alike. The poster advertized itself with the byline "not to be confused with the original `King Kong'' - clearly the distributor had the delusion that some audiences may well have confused the two - and it is indeed quite possible, for `Gorilla' blatantly steals from `King Kong' even down to having the giant ape abducting a blonde actress.
But in all other regards there is extremely little likelihood audiences might have confused `Gorilla' and `King Kong' - `King Kong' is one of the greatest of all monster movies; `Gorilla' is laughable in every respect. The effects work is shockingly bad. The scenes of the ape destroying a ridiculously unconvincing model ship and then wrestling with a rubber shark at the start of the film are a clear indication of what is to come. And the scenes that follow with the ape rampaging through and smashing obvious plywood houses and, in a couple of really hysterically unconvincing model shots, stepping over a toy cow and batting a hanglider and pilot on an visible wire, produce gales of laughter in their ineptitude. One can visibly see the eyeholes that have been made in the mask for the actor inside. Scenes of destruction go on and on forever without even the slightest degree of directorial conviction of dramatic interest being created, due to the fact that the film eschews almost any type of optical shots whatsoever - we never see any shots of the ape and people together in the same frame. Although the reason for this could well be that the three optical shots we do see which patch the ape over stock background shots of Seoul are some of the worst travelling matte shots in the history of special effects. The ape suit is completely immobile in expression and one can clearly see the eyeholes that have been made in the mask for the actor inside. Stock footage of military vehicles on manoeuvres, which are meant to stand in for the massed military attack against the ape, are repeated several times throughout.
The film was originally made in 3D but has only been seen flat in the West. Thus there are an inordinate number of shots with extras firing burning spears at the camera, soldiers rushing into the camera to pose and shoot, and the ape throwing the same rock on a wire at the camera.
There is the odd occasionally amusing line. "Let's see him dance for his organ grinder now," says the general as the military shoot the ape down. And the hero's end epithet for the ape - "He was too big for a small world like ours" - raises unintentional laughter. Alex Nicol at least gives an amusingly hard-headed performance as the American colonel (and should get some type of award for having to yell an entire performance into a telephone - even when he is out on field maneuvers). But this is really an appallingly bad film in every regard - the most amusing thing about it was its 1983 retitling `The Attack of the Giant Horny Gorilla'.
Screening at the Christchurch 1998 Incredibly Strange Film Festival Reviewed by Richard Scheib
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